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elnino550 Ballot for 2026 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 27, 2026, 9:57 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Resume-based

Removal of Penn State, no impressive wins on their easy schedule and now a terrible loss.
Oregon return to the rankings after a crucial win over USC
Big movement upward for Florida (now with a top 2 resume), Mississippi State and for Oklahoma state (2nd ranked win of the season combined with the win over Oregon looking stronger.)
Just missing out: Missouri, Kentucky, Duke, West Virginia

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns The offense does look to have its clear issues but the defence is legit and a win at Tennessee and Ohio State by any margin is still enough for them to have the best resume in the FBS.
2 Florida Gators Their offense looks frightening, wins over Ole Miss (previously my 2nd ranked team) and at Auburn is impressive enough to be in the 2nd spot after 4 games.
3 Georgia Bulldogs They are destroying everyone, and I expect a similar result next week when they host Vanderbilt setting up a huge clash in Tuscaloosa where they will get tested for the first time.
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish The win over Wisconsin looks better and they are winning games with ease. Expect the same for the next 2 weeks
5 Miami Hurricanes Wake are looking like a competent team, so that win looks more impressive. A sneaky tricky game at Clemson next week, I have it as their 2nd hardest game on their schedule, so looking to this game to judge how good Miami are.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes In a power ranking they would be my number one team, they have the best player in football in any position and just killed Illinois. The game next week at Iowa is very intriguing.
7 Alabama Crimson Tide Easily their best performance of the season from start to finish. Keelon Russell looks elite and improves every game. At Mississippi State next week is looking much tougher than it did pre-season and is a potential slip-up before the Georgia clash, so there needs to be a repeated performance from start to finish.
8 Mississippi State Bulldogs 3 P4 wins including 2 on the road and 2 in the SEC, an explosive offense with an elite QB. This team shouldn't be slept on anymore and it's a top 10 clash with Alabama next week.
9 Indiana Hoosiers Played the first team with a pulse on their schedule so far and it didn't look great. Still hard to judge where this team will end up.
10 Ole Miss Rebels Very tough loss on the road at FLorida coming off the high from the LSU win. I'm concerned that their defence is not going to be good enough to get results against the better teams on their schedule. Their resume is still of top 10 calibre despite the loss.
11 Texas Tech Red Raiders They have the best win out of any unbeaten B12 team so far (over Houston)
12 LSU Tigers
13 Iowa Hawkeyes
14 BYU Cougars They are dropping on their bye week as teams above have improved their resumes with much stronger wins
15 Utah Utes
16 Oklahoma State Cowboys Backed up their massive win against Oregon (Which looks even better after they beat USC) with a win in West Virginia whom I had ranked last week. The Tulsa loss prevents them from being the highest ranked B12 side but this team is legit.
17 UCLA Bruins 3 P4 wins on an unbeaten resume, On a bye next week before the Oregon Clash will tell us how good they are.
18 Oregon Ducks Back into the rankings with a crucial win over USC
19 Houston Cougars
20 Tennessee Volunteers They haven't really beaten any team with a pulse, but only narrowly lost to Texas so didn't want to un-rank them entirely.
21 USC Trojans
22 Virginia Tech Hokies
23 Michigan Wolverines
24 Cincinnati Bearcats
25 Pittsburgh Panthers

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